This invention relates to steam cooking devices, and particularly to arrangements for introducing steam into the cooking chamber of steam cooking devices.
The advantages of steaming certain foods rather than cooking these foods by other methods have become well-recognized in recent years. For example, when meats are cooked under dry conditions, as when baked, the meat looses its intrinsic moisture and may become dried out and unpalatable. Further, vegetables contain certain valuable minerals which are retained if the vegetables are steamed rather than cooked by other means, such as boiling.
Current steam cooking devices utilize steam generated in a boiler to cook or thaw food. This steam is transported from the boiler to a cooking chamber where it is introduced into the cooking chamber by a conduit or the like extending from the boiler to an opening in the wall of the cooking chamber. Although this method of introducing steam into the cooking chamber sometimes provides acceptable steam distribution within this cooking chamber, it is difficult to control the direction of the steam and the circulation of the steam within the cooking chamber. The steam distribution inside the cooking chamber tends not to be uniform. Accordingly, there is a need for a method of introducing steam into the cooking chamber of a steam cooking device which will increase the steam circulation and the uniformity of the steam distribution within the cooking chamber and thereby improve the cooking performance of the steam cooking device.